Portman revises its range of fixed rates

Portman has revamped its fixed rate mortgage range, now offering borrowers a fixed rate of 4.99% for two, three and five-year terms.

Available to brokers and direct via its branches, the society is also offering – for a limited time only – no higher lending charges on all fixed rate products with 95% LTV.

Matthew Wyles, group development director of Portman, says: “The decision by the Monetary Policy Committee to raise interest rates has created even more of a challenge for first-time buyers.

“Portman is seeking to help this sector by launching competitive products where-by borrowers can choose their term and, for a limited period, these products have no higher lending charges.”

Wayne Unsworth, mortgage adviser at Hallmark IFA, says: “It’s a good idea to have the same rate across the fixed rate terms. Lenders shouldn’t have HLCs anyway so it’s good that Portman has got rid of them.”

Jonathan Burridge, managing director of Quantum Mortgage Brokers, says: “Offering the same rate over varying periods is an attempt to attract longer term borrowing. Any five-year fix that starts with 4% is good value.”

Recommended

Nationwide has called on Gordon Brown to increase the Stamp Duty threshold, at which the initial 1% tier of Stamp Duty tax paid on residential house purchases kicks in, in line with house price inflation.This would take the threshold up to £202,000 from its current level of £125,000, based on the original threshold of £60,000 […]

The Mortgage Times Group has fully integrated with Trigold’s Electronic Trading Centre. Christopher May, director of Mortgage Times, says: “Our relationship with Trigold has gone from strength and we now have about 2,000 verified exclusive products displayed on Trigold. This has seen us grow our subscription numbers rapidly.”

Another week, another set of headlines about Britain’s debt crisis. They are a favourite with the national media. One describes it as an ‘epidemic’, stating that some 5,300 people a day seek advice from Citizens Advice about debt.

The Financial Services Authority has published a paper setting out its assessment of the overall costs and benefits for the financial services industry of implementing the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive in the UK.The overall impact of MiFID attempts to quantify, where possible, the benefits of MiFID in the UK, and sets these alongside the […]